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Want the concert experience but don’t want to break your wallet? Music Under the Star free concert series sounds like your cup of tea.

Each week this July Bullock Texas State History Museum will be hosting free concerts from 6 pm to 9 pm in the museum’s Lone Star Plaza.

Kicking off the series July 8 is Ghostland Observatory frontman Aaron Behrens, debuting his solo album this year. Writing, recording and rehearsing with a crack team of Austin musicians, Behrens blends elements of soulful rock and heartfelt blues into a refreshing sound with band, The Midnight Stroll, featuring Jonas Wilson (previously from Lomita and White White Lights) on guitar.

Opening the event is Walker Lukens, whose soulful, emotive tenor and alt-pop songwriting have been compared to Harry Nilsson to Tom Waits and Pavement. Lukens, Austin, Texas-based, has fronted various bands but later released his solo EP, Year of the Dog and later his Devoted in 2013. They received unanimous praise from outlets like NPR, American Songwriter, Austin-American Statesman, Austin Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, and Billboard.

KLRU and Austin City Limits are presenting partners for this year’s Music Under the Stars series.

Before checking out the concert, make sure to explore the Austin City Limits Theaterinstallation in the Museum’s third floor galleries features the music and musicians that made the innovative PBS series the longest-running music program in American television history.

The ACL Theater’s large-screen concert experience takes audiences from the 1974 pilot broadcast of Willie Nelson’s ACL performance to the present day. The music series originally featured local Austin musicians, but now the show books regional, national and international performances. Austin City Limits was designated as an official Rock and Roll Landmark in 2010 by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Sit back and enjoy Lyle Lovett, Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Buffet, Flaco Jiménez, Sheryl Crow, Radiohead, and film clips from other ACL broadcasts. Artifacts on display in the exhibition include the Austin City Limits neon sign, the 1974 letter to PBS explaining the ACL concept, tree branches from the iconic Studio 6A set, and the 2011 Peabody Award that recognized ACL’s excellence in “presenting and preserving eclectic American musical genres.”

For 50 years now, KLRU has inspired Austin with television programs, community projects and educational initiatives that spark creativity, exploration, and understanding, both locally and around the world. We invite you to wish KLRU a Happy 50th Birthday by giving a gift in support of our March fundraising drive.

This month, KLRU must raise more than $270,000 to continue to provide you with more than 30,000 hours of programming, that for FIVE decades, has been the best on television. We hope you can watch, and support, this weekend:

Tonight: Inspire Understanding by giving a gift for Moyers & Company at 8pm (Welcome back, Bill!)
Saturday: Inspire Creativity with a gift for a VERY special episode of Austin City Limits at 8pm – Season 37 Highlights: Some of our favorite moments from Season 37. Tune in for your chance to get tickets to see Radiohead tape a performance for Season 38 – every gift made will automatically be entered to win 1 of 5 pairs of balcony tickets to the Tuesday night taping. We also have a limited number of guaranteed tickets to offer for donations of $500 – but the only way to secure those is by watching Saturday night and calling in!
Sunday: Inspire Exploration by supporting our smash hit Downton Abbey at 7pm – We’ll be airing a behind-the-scenes special and a fan-favorite episode from Season 2. Take your exploration even further by entering the Masterpiece Sweepstakes to win a trip to Britain and tour the castles that inspired Downton Abbey.

They say you only turn fifty once, but with the help of supporters like you, we feel like we’re just getting started, and that KLRU’s best work is still ahead of it. Give your Birthday gift to KLRU right now!

If you are not interested in one of our fantastic thank you gifts, I hope you will consider giving a gift of $50 in honor of KLRU’s 50 years of service. That’s just $1 for each year that KLRU has inspired Austin.

During this drive we offered tickets to a number of one-of-a-kind KLRU experiences. As you think about how you would like to be thanked for your support, please consider joining us for one (or more) of these incredible events:

We hope you will make a donation, and perhaps join us for one of our events. Also, please consider inspiring others by sharing your reason for supporting KLRU at our Facebook page, or on Twitter – using the hashtag #whyKLRU.

If you’ve already given a gift or shared why you love KLRU this August, thank you for your support! In just one week, you have helped raised $90,000 towards our goal of $240,000! We’re not done yet – tonight and Saturday we’ll be live in the KLRU studios with really exciting programs and thank you gifts!

Tonight is our regular Friday public affairs line up starting at 6pm with PBS Newshour, Washington Week at 7pm and Need to Know at 7:30pm. If you call in to support any of our public affairs programs you’ll be entered in a drawing to win season tickets to our engaging speaker series, Spark at the Moody.

Following public affairs at 8:30pm is American Masters: Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides, an incredible portrait of the life, career, and creative journey of a very talented actor, artist and musician. Jeff Bridges just taped his Austin City Limits performance this week (airing in November), and we’ll be giving away his signed, limited edition posters and also tickets to the Big Lebowski quote-a-long at the Alamo Drafthouse this month – you’ll have to watch to win, so don’t forget to tune in!

The highlight of Saturday afternoon is 90 minutes of Central Texas Gardener starting at 4pm. We’ll be live in the studio with all the CTG folks who are eager to hear from the garden-lovers out there. We have a great fall preview show lined up (read more about it at the CTG blog!), a special gift package to give away from Eastside Cafe, Go Local Austin businesses answering the phones, and an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience for fans to see an actual taping of a CTG episode! It’ll be CTG-super-sized and not to be missed!

Stick around KLRU into the evening for the next live pledge event: Austin City Limits, Season 37 Preview. See next season’s performances and backstage interviews before anyone else does! And if you’re a fan of Arcade Fire, you will have an opportunity to receive tickets to their ACL taping in September – tickets will go fast, so don’t miss your chance! Give now and watch the preview tomorrow for more ACL goodies!

KLRU is very grateful to have received several recent commitments towards its ACL Studio Fund. Bettye & Bill Nowlin have made a generous contribution of $250,000 through the Austin Community Foundation. Pledges have been made by The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, ($100,000) and the Still Water Foundation ($50,000).

We are thrilled that the Moody Foundation has pledged $50,000 toward our Grand Opening Street Party for the Moody Theater in February 2011. This gift will allow approximately 2,000 members of the general public to attend a free unveiling of the new Austin City Limits Stage and to enjoy festivities around the W Austin Hotel downtown, including a live, outdoor projection of the evening’s highlights from inside the venue.

We are so fortunate to have enlisted the support of these partners — and we look forward to sharing the outcomes with Central Texas and beyond!

Although Austin City Limits: 35 Years in Photographs isn’t officially released until September 14th, you may have seen it popping up at various places around Austin (including for sale at recent ACL tapings!). This substantial coffee-table book features hundreds of stunning photographs by long-time ACL photographer Scott Newton. Edited by Newton and Executive Producer Terry Lickona, the photographs have been carefully curated and presented with memories and quotes about ACL from the artists who have performed on the show. The book is currently available for sale through KLRU’s website as well as most major booksellers. More information about the book itself:

Austin City Limits is the best of the best: the best moments from some of the most brilliant, mesmerizing, quirky, esoteric, and unforgettable performances on the longest-running popular music series in American television history.

Austin City Limits

35 Years in Photographs

Photographs by Scott Newton

Edited by Terry Lickona and Scott Newton

Foreword by John Mayer

September 2010

$40.00 hardcover, ISBN 978-0-292-72311-5

10.5 x 11 inches, 204 pages, 294 color and b&w photos

Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series

Honored as a “historic rock and roll landmark” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, AustinCity Limits is the longest-running popular music series in American television history. Austin City Limits began in 1974 by featuring original Texas music that ran the gamut from western swing and Texas blues to Tejano, progressive country, and rock and roll. By the time the show celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary in 2009, its coverage encompassed unique regional, national, and even international performers in an eclectic, ever-expanding range of genres. Austin City Limits has also broadened its live audience beyond its iconic studio on the University of Texas campus with the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, a three-day extravaganza that spotlights some 150 bands and attracts more than 200,000 fans.

Austin City Limits captures the excitement and energy of the show in photographs by Austin City Limit’s longtime still photographer, Scott Newton. The images span Austin City Limit’s first thirty-five years, with special emphasis on legendary artists such as Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Leonard Cohen, and Willie Nelson, and the most compelling contemporary performers and bands from the past ten to fifteen years, including Coldplay, John Mayer, Elvis Costello, Pearl Jam, David Byrne, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, Lucinda Williams, and Norah Jones. Proving that he has few peers among photographers of live music, Newton’s images deliver amazing glimpses into the intimate, revealing, and powerful moments in each artist’s performance. They also depict the direct and potent connection between performer and audience that has always been a hallmark of Austin City Limits.

SCOTT NEWTON has been the house photographer for Austin City Limits since 1979. His work has been published on numerous album covers and in many magazines and books, including three books illustrated entirely by his work: two about Austin City Limits (the most recent being Austin City Limits: 25 Years ofAmerican Music) and The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock: New Edition.

TERRY LICKONA has been the producer of Austin City Limits since 1978. He served as chairman of the board of trustees of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences from 2005–2007 and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Americana Music Association in 2009.

Earlier this year, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum designated Austin City Limits an official rock and roll landmark. University of Texas workers installed the official plaque marking the show as part of music history onto the outside of Communications Building B on the University of Texas campus on November 10.

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the first taping of the award winning PBS series AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, Mayor Lee Leffingwell has declared October 17 “Austin City Limits Day.” The date recognizes the show’s very first taping, which took place on October 17, 1974 and featured the iconic Willie Nelson. To mark the honor KLRU and ACL will stream the original episode in its entirety for one month. For more information visit the newly launched austincitylimits.org. And, on November 15, ACL will again present a very special episode with Willie Nelson, in a joint performance with Austin legends Asleep at the Wheel.

Watch the proclamation ceremony:

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS: “Great Music. No Limits.” Now the longest-running music series in American television history, ACL showcases popular music legends and innovators from every genre. In addition to being honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as a rock and roll landmark, AUSTIN CITY LIMITS is the only television program to ever receive the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest award for artistic excellence. Still to come in this exciting anniversary season are shows with Kenny Chesney, Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello, The Avett Brothers, Mos Def and more.